The Militant Libertarian

I'm pissed off and I'm a libertarian. What else you wanna know?

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Economy, FISA, and Fannie May





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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Israel, AIPAC, and God

From Fred: http://fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm

I’m sitting here with a bottle of Padre Kino red, listening to a burro honk outside and trying to figure out Israel and AIPAC and life itself. It’s hard going, I tell you.

Why is everybody mad at AIPAC? Everybody, I mean, everybody that’s heard of it, which means maybe five percent of Americans. Apackers are simply patriots, earnestly trying to do the best they can for their country, which isn’t the United States. I’d do the same thing, if I were one of them. I mean, everybody buys Congress—big pharma, the military companies, the teachers unions, anybody that wants anything pays Congress to do what it wants if it has enough money. I’m surprised they don’t have advertised sales. I guess AIPAC can buy them too.

Why aren’t people mad at Congress instead, which does what The Lobby tells it to? AIPAC isn’t supposed to be concerned about the good of the US. Congress is, and isn’t.

What I reckon is: AIPAC figures it’s helping Israel, but I gotta suspect it may be Israel’s worst enemy. Think about it. Israel is a tiny little country in a bad neighborhood. Everybody where it is hates it. Greater Israel is full of Hay-rabs that hate it, and getting fuller. Does this sound like a recipe for a happy ending?

I remember what a friend said about Phnom Penh during the siege: “It’s hopeless but not critical.”

You’d figure under those circumstances the Israelis would go back in the ’67 borders, try their damndest to get along with the people next door, and thus stay Jewish, which was the point of the thing in the first place. It’s probably their only shot. But they aren’t going to do it.

No. They gotta bomb everybody they can reach, and keep building apartments on Palestinian land, which is why Greater Israel has pretty much turned into South Africa or the US in 1930. Looks to me as if we’re gonna have fewer and fewer Israelis holding down more and more Hay-rabs so they’ll have to be meaner and meaner to do it until the whole shebang falls in. They want this?

Why does Israel do everything it can think of to make the whole world hate it? Because it can. Why can it? Because America is its enabler. Israel has a huge air force because America gives it airplanes. Nobody else would. Its economy stays afloat because America gives it money. If it wants to bomb somebody, the US keeps the world from stopping it. If it loses a war, which it did in ’73, the US bails it out. Israel can always say, “If you don’t like it, I’ll make my big brother beat you up.”

And that’s a bad thing, because one day the big brother may not come. Israelis might be better off with less help, so they’d have to learn to live where they are.

As best I can tell, AIPAC is all that makes the US pony up. If Israel got overrun tomorrow, most Americans would see it as less upsetting than a lost Super Bowl. They don’t hate Israel. They don’t even hate Jews. They just aren’t interested. Israel is like, you know, a foreign country, over there. Somewhere. “Huge Earthquake in Latvia.” Yeah, well. What’s on channel four?

Me, I’d be nervous if my country, and my house with my kids in it and my stereo and wine rack, depended on one lobby.

Now, will The Lobby ever lose its grip, or will the US ever stop saving Israel from itself? I don’t know. If I were an Israeli, I believe I’d rather avoid making the experiment. Certainly people talk about The Lobby more than they used to dare, and some major columnists have gotten kind of blunt about it. Pat Buchanan, Charlie Reese, Paul Craig Roberts, and such for example. On the other hand, most people don’t read columns and anyway, Congress is what counts, and it doesn’t have to do what people want.

Can anything shake AIPAC’s control in Washington? Yep. Money. Oil. Twelve dollar gas. The American public is the most clueless in the First World, but it knows the price of gas. So far, AIPAC has had an easy ride because Israel hasn’t really cost much: a few billion a year in aid, some vetoes in the UN, and a bunch of angry ragtops growling on their sand dunes. This doesn’t affect folks back in the district. You can do anything you want in Washington as long as people back home are comfortable.

However, it is worth remembering that Congress doesn’t like AIPAC, or Israel. It fears them. The moment Congress comes to fear people back home more than it does AIPAC, it will change sides.

Now, the US is not heading in happy directions. Economically, it was not so long ago the greatest creditor nation; today it is the greatest debtor. (The number-one creditor: China.) General Motors is tottering, closing factories and firing people as Japanese car-makers take over. Financial institutions crump to be bailed out by the government. Gas was at $4.15 yesterday in California. The country seems to be in an economic decline and hasn’t figured it out, sort of like a fifty-year –old man who thinks he’s nineteen. Economic decline eventually means military decline.

If Bush, Cheney, and AIPAC push the US into attacking Iran, God only knows what will happen. Bush, Cheney, and AIPAC don’t know. At least their record isn’t encouraging: They pushed the country into attacking Iraq, and look how that went. I’d call it Iranian roulette with about a two-shot revolver.

Even without Padre Kino it’s easy to imagine the region turning into an unparalleled mess with America having to back out because it just doesn’t have the army, and crazed Wahabis coming to power in Saudi Arabia, and OPEC, no longer afraid of the US and hating it, setting prices wherever it wants. Which probably wouldn’t be downward. How much do you trust in the mercy of Hugo Chavez?

If gas prices (and all prices dependent on petroleum) hit truly absurd highs, every voter in every congressional district will be screaming, along with all his cousins, dogs, cats, and blowup dolls, for cheap gas—and the heads of those responsible. If the choice ever becomes oil or Israel, then Israel will lose. I would think AIPAC would go to great lengths to prevent the choice from materializing. But no. It wants to attack Iran. As it wanted to attack Iraq. That’s how smart Apackers really are.

If there is anything that could ignite serious hostility to Jews in the US, methinks this is it. It would be something of a bum rap. Jews and AIPAC are not the same thing. I know all sorts of Jews who think attacking Iran is a fool idea.

Historically however Jews have been blamed for what they have done, what they could have done, what they might have done, what they didn’t do, and what they couldn’t possibly have done. Respectable voices begin blame The Lobby for getting America into Iraq. (E.g., Michael Scheuer, the former CIA analyst.) The charge is only partly true: In a world in which the supply of oil is getting dicey, colonization of Iraq would give the US strategic control of lots of it. This, I promise, has occurred to Dick Cheney. But petro-strategic considerations are too complex for the public mind. “AIPAC did it!” is much simpler.

If I were Jewish, I would ask, “Is AIPAC really helping Israel by enabling its crazies to make war on everyone within reach while staring into the face of onrushing demographic self-mutilation?” But I’m just some Anglo in Mexico with a bottle of Padre Kino.

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Sunday, July 13, 2008

Unique Spam Scam

Here's a unique spam I got today, highlighting how creative these guys can be, if nothing else. I often find the spam I get to be at least somewhat amusing, since I know that there are people who fall for this stuff and, in my opinion, they deserve to get fleeced for being such morons. After all, if the Prime Minister of Nigeria or the CEO of The Bank of the Caymans is sending you an email...wouldn't it at least be nominally grammatically correct?

At any rate, here's the email I got. I post it here for your amusement, as I'm sure you'll no doubt get a kick out of it for much the same reason I did:


Subject: ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITARY CRIMES DIVISION

ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITARY CRIMES DIVISION
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535-0001
Website: www.fbi.gov


ATTENTION FUND BENEFICIARY,

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL ADVICE FROM THE FBI FOREIGN REMITTANCE/TELEGRAPHIC DEPT.,
IT HAS COME TO OUR NOTICE THAT THE C.B.N BANK NIGERIA DISTRICT HAS RELEASED 10,500,000.00 U.S DOLLARS INTO BANK OF AMERICA IN YOUR NAME AS THE BENEFICIARY,BY INHERITANCE MEANS.

THE C.B.N BANK NIGERIA KNOWING FULLY WELL THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FACILITIES TO EFFECT THIS PAYMENT FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM TO YOUR ACCOUNT, USED WHAT WE KNOW AS A SECRET DIPLOMATIC TRANSIT PAYMENT S.T.D.P TO PAY THIS FUND THROUGH WIRE TRANSFER,THEY USED THIS MEANS TO COMPLETE THE PAYMENT.

THEY ARE STILL, WAITING FOR CONFIRMATION FROM YOU ON THE ALREADY TRANSFERRED FUNDS WHICH WAS MADE IN DIRECT TRANSFER SO THAT THEY CAN DO FINAL CREDITING TO YOUR ACCOUNT. SECRET DIPLOMATIC PAYMENTS ARE NOT MADE UNLESS THE FUNDS ARE RELATED TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES WHY MUST YOUR PAYMENT BE MADE IN SECRET TRANSFER , IF YOUR TRANSACTION IS LEGITIMATE,IF YOU ARE NOT A TERRORIST, THEN WHY DID YOU NOT RECEIVE THE MONEY DIRECTLY INTO YOUR ACCOUNT,THIS IS A PURE CODED ,MEANS OF PAYMENT?

RECORDS WHICH WE HAVE HAD WITH THIS METHOD OF PAYMENT IN THE PAST HAS ALWAYS BEEN RELATED TO TERRORIST ACTS, WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO GET INTO TROUBLE AS SOON AS THESE FUNDS REFLECT IN YOUR ACCOUNT IN THE U.S.A, SO IT IS OUR DUTY AS A WORD WIDE COMMISSION TO CORRECT THIS LITTLE PROBLEM BEFORE THIS FUND WILL BE CREDITED INTO YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT.

DUE TO THE INCREASED DIFFICULTY AND UNNECESSARY SCRUTINY BY THE AMERICAN AUTHORITIES WHEN FUNDS COME FROM OUTSIDE OF EUROPE, AND THE MIDDLE EAST, THEF.B.I BANK COMMISSION FOR EUROPE HAS STOPPED THE TRANSFER ON ITS WAY TO DELIVER PAYMENT OF $10,500,000.00 TO DEBIT YOUR RESERVE ACCOUNT AND PAY YOU THROUGH A SECURED DIPLOMATIC TRANSIT ACCOUNT (S.D.T.A). WE GOVERN AND OVERSEES FUNDS TRANSFER FOR THE WORLD BANK AND THE REST OF THE WORLD.

WE ADVICE YOU CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY,AS THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN STOPPED AND ARE BEING HELD IN OUR CUSTODY ,UNTIL YOU CAN BE ABLE TO PROVIDE US WITH A DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY SEAL OF TRANSFER(DIST) WITHING 3 DAYS FROM THE WORLD LOCAL BANK THAT AUTHORIZE THE TRANSFER FROM WHERE THE FUNDS WAS TRANSFERRED FROM TO CERTIFY THAT THE FUNDS THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE FROM NIGERIA ARE ANTITERRORIST/DRUG FREE OR WE SHALL HAVE CAUSE TO CROSS AND IMPOUND THE PAYMENT,WE SHALL RELEASE THE FUNDS IMMEEDIATELY WE RECEIVE THIS LEGAL DOCUMENTS .

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We have decided to contact you directly to acquire the proper verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this fund, because of the amount involve,we want to make sure is a clean and legal money you are about to receive. Be informed that the fund are now in United State in your name , but right now we have ask the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them , unless we ask them to do so, because we have to carry out our investigations first before releasing the fund to you.

Note that the fund is in the BANK OF AMERICA right now, but we have ask them not to credit the fund to you yet, because we need a solid proof and verifications from you before releasing the funds.

So to this regards you are to re-assure and proof to us that what you are about to receive is a clean money by sending to us FBI Identification Record and also Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) to satisfy to us that the money your about to receive is legitimate and real money. You are to forward the documents to us immediately if you have it in your possession, if you don?t have it let us know so that we will direct and inform you where to obtain the document and send to us so that we will ask the bank holding the funds the Bank Of America to go ahead Crediting your account immediately.

This Documents are to be issued to you from the World Local Bank that Authorized the transfer, so get back to us immediately if you don?t have the document so that we will inform you the particular place to obtain the document in United Kingdom U.K, because we have come to realize that the fund was Authorized by H.S.B.C Bank in London.

An FBI Identification Record and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST)often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service.

THESE CONDITION IS VALID UNTIL 16TH OF JULY 2008 AFTER WE SHALL TAKE ACTIONS ON CANCELLING THE PAYMENT AND THEN CHARGE YOU FOR ILLEGALLY MOVING FUNDS OUT OF NIGERIA.

GURANTEE: FUNDS WILL BE RELEASED ON CONFIRMATION OF THE DOCUMENT.

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FINAL INSTRUCTION:
60F CREDIT PAYMENT INSTRUCTION: IRREVOCABLE CREDIT GUARANTEE
61E BENEFICIARY HAS FULL POWER WHEN VALIDATION IS CLEARED
62 BENNEFICIARIES BANK IN U.S.A., CAN ONLY RELEASE FUNDS-
62 UPON CONFIRMATION FROM THE WORLD BANK/UNITED NATIONS.
64 BEARERS MUST CLEAR BANK PROTOCOL AND VALIDATION REQUEST


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NOTE: We have asked for the above documents to make available the
most complete and up-to date records possible for the enhancement of public safety,welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights.. If you fail to provide the Documents to us, we will charge you with the FBI and take our proper action against you for not proofing to us the legitimate of the fund you are about to receive.

The United States Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules
and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain
a copy of his or her own Record for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services(CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities in U.S.A.

An individual may request a copy of his or her own FBI Identification Record for personal review or to challenge information on the Record. Other reasons an individual may request a copy of his or her own Identification Record may include international adoption or to satisfy a requirement to live or work in a foreign country or receive funds from another country (i.e., Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer, letter of good conduct, criminal history background, etc.)

FBI Director
Robert S. Mueller, III

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